


Only Human

by Hekkenfeldt



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bodily Fluids, Hospitals, M/M, Polyamory, Sickness, Triad relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 04:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5729122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hekkenfeldt/pseuds/Hekkenfeldt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam leaps out of their bed at four in the morning and goes running past Bucky's cot so fast he nearly knocks it over, Steve is awake faster than he's ever been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only Human

**Author's Note:**

> There's some graphic description of illness in the fic below. Consider yourself warned. :)

When Sam leaps out of their bed at four in the morning and goes running past Bucky's cot so fast he nearly knocks it over, Steve is awake faster than he's ever been. When he hears the repeated sounds of retching and puking from the bathroom moments later, he's on his feet and running. He barely beats Bucky to the bathroom door.

"Sam? Are you okay?"

Sam doesn't answer -- he just heaves into the toilet again. Cautiously, Steve turns on the lights and is horrified by what he sees. He has never seen Sam so ashen, or seen Sam's hands shake the way they do now, clutching the rim of the bowl.

Finally, after what seems like forever, Sam backs away from the toilet and lies down on the tile floor.

"Sam," Steve says, getting down on his knees, "that can't be comfortable. Let me take you to bed."

But Sam waves him off frantically. This time when he vomits, he barely manages to lift his head in the direction of the toilet. He pukes all over the floor, and Bucky only just manages to pull him back before he lets his head flop down in the mess.

"Get him to bed," orders Bucky, handing Steve the bathroom garbage can in case Sam needs to be sick again. "I'll get him water and call the doctor."

"Doctors don't make house calls anymore, Buck," Steve reminds him as he tries to pull Sam into his arms. Sam whines every time Steve touches him, and it's a pathetic, desperate noise Steve never expected to hear from him. "Sam, Sam sweetie, please let me pick you up. Does it hurt?"

Sam moves his mouth a bit, like he's too exhausted to actually make words, and finally Bucky helps Steve carry him to bed, because Steve can't bear to touch him when it's obvious he's causing him pain.

They tuck him under the covers but Sam just pushes them off. "Hot," he mumbles, and dry heaves a few times.

"Should we take him to a hospital?" hisses Steve, even though he knows Bucky will cringe at the 'h' word.

It's the first sign that their Sam is still inside this vomiting mess when he moans something that resembles the words "S'just a flu!", and flings an arm in their general direction.

 

So they wait.

 

Two hours later, Bucky and Steve are crammed together on Bucky's cot, because they don't want to disturb Sam's attempts at sleep. A quiet "help" has them bounding across the room and to Sam’s side.

"Sweetheart? What do you need?" Bucky's voice is softer, gentler than Steve's heard it since before the war.

There's humiliation on Sam's face. It's not a thing Steve gets to see often, and not something he thinks he’ll want to see ever again. "I think... I think I shit myself," Sam whispers and Steve's nearly cooing trying to tell him it's alright.

They've barely managed to pull Sam off the bed when they realize there's blood on the sheets.

"Hospital," says Bucky, and he doesn't even wince.

 

They're left answering the triage nurse's questions while they watch Sam being wheeled away in a bed down the corridor, moaning and whimpering.

"Please, sirs, I need you to pay attention. Does he take any medications?"

Bucky tells the nurse Sam's lactose intolerant, but he can't remember the pill. Steve, for some reason, can remember the dosage, but he can't think of the name either. The nurse looks at them like they're idiots. Steve feels like an idiot. They should have taken him in when he first started vomiting. They should have taken him in the night before, even though he seemed perfectly fine. Sam, thinks Steve, as he tries to figure out where the nurses have taken him, should always be in a hospital. He’s not like them. He can get _sick_. He can _die_ from it.

Bucky must hear Steve's breathing start to go crazy because he grabs his hand. "Hey, Sam needs us to keep it together."

So Steve does.

 

Steve watches with wide eyes as Sam gets hooked up to another IV. "This one's a painkiller," explains a nurse, who looks at Steve with pity, not contempt, and somehow that's worse. "The other one's a saline solution. It will get some fluid back into him."

Steve nods. He was in a hospital often enough as kid to not need the explanation, but he doesn’t have the energy to explain this, or even to explain who they are; they might get better service if says he’s Captain America, but then everyone will pry – there’ll be all sorts of questions, and maybe even paparazzi, and all he can manage to concentrate on right now is Sam. He’d probably take the head off the first person to ask for an autograph, and wouldn’t that be a fun PR mess.

When the nurse is gone, Bucky stops pacing outside and comes back in. He pointedly doesn't look at the catheter in Sam's arm. Bucky hasn't been able to bear anything medical since Hydra.

Steve and Bucky hold hands, and Steve thinks they’re both trying not to imagine what their life would be like if Sam wasn't in it.

 

Later, they watch Sam get rolled away for x-rays. The nurse tells them to go get something to eat. Steve’s not hungry, but they’re both super soldiers, and he knows how much food their heightened metabolisms require, so he drags Bucky down to the cafeteria and they grab whatever looks not-entirely-disgusting, and force it down their throats. They try to talk, a couple of times, but all that comes out is "Sam...", so they give up.

By the time they get back, Sam is awake. He still looks grey, but he's smiling, and Steve nearly cries from relief.

"Sam, oh god, you scared the shit out of us. I'm so sorry. We should have brought you in sooner and--"

"I love you, guys." Sam says, and he's smiling a little too blissfully, and Bucky very nearly rips the IV bag off the stand. Steve barely manages to stop him.

“They’ve _drugged_ him!”

"It's okay, Bucky. It's fine. It's not like Hydra. It's for his own good." Steve whispers again and again, until finally Bucky bolts from the room. Steve doesn't know whether to go after Bucky or to stay with Sam, who's looking a little sad that Bucky has left.

"Everyone here is so _nice_ ," whispers Sam, and Steve smiles weakly and pretends that reassures him.

 

Bucky comes back in around the same time the doctor does. "You'll be happy to hear it's just a nasty viral infection," she says, a huge smile on her face that makes Steve want to break all her teeth.

Instead, he manages to say, "He had _bloody diarrhea_.", all while leaving her teeth alone.

"Gastrointestinal issues can do that. But every test we've done has come back negative."

They both jump at the sound of metal bending, and Bucky's got his gloved metal hand wrapped too tightly around the side of Sam's bed. "You can't be serious.” Bucky is flexing his fingers, like he’s looking for something else to break. “We brought him all the way here, to a _hospital_ , and it's a _virus_?!"

The doctor is starting to look frightened. Maybe she'll call for security, muses Steve. He'd like a fight right now. But then he'd have to leave Sam's side. So he fakes a nervous laugh and goes over to pat Bucky on the shoulder. "Doesn't know his own strength. Are you _sure_ it's just a virus?"

"I'm sure..." she whispers, looking a little frantic.

"Told you it was just a flu..."

Steve and Bucky whip their heads around to see Sam giving them a much weaker, much more sober smile. "Stop scaring the lady and lemme sleep."

The doctor nearly runs out of the room, and Steve collapses in the bedside chair, face in his hands. _Sam's_ _okay_ , he tells himself, and wills himself not to break down, because nobody needs that right now.

Bucky is obviously far less concerned about breaking down, because he suddenly lets out a wail. "I couldn't remember your medication! I'm sorry!", and Sam, stupid Sam and his need to take care of other people, reaches out to pull Bucky in for a hug, wincing the whole time.

"It's okay, man. I'm right here. I love you. It's fine." He kisses Bucky's head again and again until Bucky stops making those snuffling noises into his chest, and then he gives Steve a desperate look. "Take him home so I can sleep some more?"

And Steve doesn't want to leave Sam's side, not for a moment, but Sam's looking exhausted, and Bucky's looking like he's ready to drop or cry or kill something, and he's not feeling much better himself, so he pulls Bucky out of there with promises that he'll send Natasha to come get Sam, and holds Bucky tight all the way to the car. He’ll buy multi-vitamins on the way home, and juice, and soup, and whatever fancy things the 21st century uses to keep people from getting sick. Maybe some bubble wrap... Sam’s only human, after all.


End file.
